Things to Do in Bregenz, Feldkirch and Dornbirn, Austria

Bregenz, Dornbirn and Feldkirch are the three towns of the Bodensee-Vorarlberg region in western Austria, and you can see all three in three days because they sit within 20 minutes of each other by train. Bregenz gives you Lake Constance, a cable car and an opera festival on a floating stage; Dornbirn gives you a mountain restaurant and the shops; Feldkirch gives you a medieval centre and a summer music festival in an old swimming pool. I spent three days there and these are the things worth your time in each.

Things to do in Bregenz

Bregenz sits on the eastern shore of Lake Constance with a mountain behind it, so the town splits neatly into a lakefront and an upper town. The cable car, the two museums and the lake boats are all within walking distance of each other.

Take the cable car up the Pfänder

The Pfänderbahn runs daily from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., every 30 minutes, and takes you to the top of Bregenz’s house mountain in six minutes. At the top there is the Alpine Wildlife Park, which is free, plus cycling routes and hiking trails.

A return ticket for an adult costs €19.00 ($20, £16) and a single is €12.70 ($14, £11), on the fares running from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. Children under 6 travel free with an adult, and dogs ride free. If you arrive in Bregenz by boat, you can get a small discount on the cable car fare by picking up a voucher at the dock.

I had planned to hike back down to the town centre, and the shortest trail takes about an hour and a half, but it was so hot that day and I was feeling a bit off, so I did the 30-minute circuit of the wildlife park instead. It is mainly a walk to do with children, since what you see is alpine animals, but it descends and climbs hard enough to count as a workout.

An even shorter walk from the cable car takes you to the actual summit of the Pfänder at 1,064 m (3,491 ft). The point itself is a bit disappointing, with a cross on top and trees in the way, though there is a good-looking mountain hut, and to the right of it you get a proper view of Lake Constance.

The view is better from the roof of the cable car station itself, which has a viewing platform reachable by an outdoor staircase. That platform is not wheelchair accessible. There is a restaurant next to the station if you are hungry.

Carry water if you plan to walk at the top. There is no shade on the wildlife park circuit and the drinking options up there are the two inns and a kiosk, so a refillable bottle such as the Embrava 32 oz sports bottle saves you a detour.

One thing to know before you plan a November trip: the Pfänderbahn closes for several weeks of annual maintenance each autumn, so check the operating calendar if you are travelling late in the year.

Walk around the Upper Town

The Upper Town, a 10-minute walk from the cable car station, is where Bregenz started, and you can see the old city walls from a distance. Follow the Stadtsteig uphill and turn left just before the old city gate to reach the St Martinsturm, St Martin’s Tower.

The tower’s window gallery gives you Lake Constance, the Pfänder and the Swiss mountains in one view, and it hosts temporary exhibitions inside. It stands where a warehouse dating back to the founding of Bregenz around 1250 once stood. A small chapel was founded on the upper floor in the first half of the 14th century and became St Martin’s Chapel in 1362, and in the second half of the 16th century the building was turned into a watchtower.

The tower and chapel are open daily except Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Check the town’s own listing before a winter visit, because the opening season is shorter out of summer.

After the tower, walk along Graf-Wilhelm-Strasse onto Amtstorstrasse to reach Thalbachgasse and the Thalbach Convent. The convent building is not much to look at, but it is worth a glance before you take the small Ernst-Volkmann-Stiege up to Kirchplatz and the parish church of St Gallus. Then follow Kirchstrasse back down to the centre, past some genuinely good independent shops.

See the narrowest house in Europe

The narrowest house facade in Europe is at Kirchstraße 29 in Bregenz, and it is 57 cm (22.4 in) wide. Several European towns claim the title, and Bregenz has the strongest case.

The building has no side walls of its own: it fills a gap between two neighbours, so the front door is actually wider than the facade and overlaps the buildings on either side. It was first recorded in 1796 and widens towards the back, giving it a liveable amount of floor space behind that sliver of a front.

For comparison, Valencia‘s La Estrecha, which makes the same claim, is 107 cm (42.1 in) wide. It is a fun spot for a photo and takes two minutes.

Shop on the Kaiserstrasse

Kaiserstrasse is Bregenz’s main shopping street and it is car-free. It is not long, and it leads you towards the Kornmarktplatz, where the Kunsthaus Bregenz and the vorarlberg museum stand next to each other.

Visit the Kunsthaus Bregenz

The Kunsthaus Bregenz, or KUB, is a contemporary art museum showing temporary exhibitions by international artists, and the building is as much of the point as the art. It was designed by the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor and has 1,880 m² (20,236 sq ft) of exhibition space over four floors.

The KUB is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Thursdays until 8 p.m., closed Mondays. Adult admission is €14 ($15, £12) and reduced entry is €12 ($13, £10), with free entry for under-19s. On the first Thursday of the month entry is free between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.

One thing to check before you travel: the KUB closes between exhibitions while the next one is installed, so a date that falls in a changeover week gets you a closed building. The exhibition calendar on the KUB’s own website shows the run dates.

The KUB Cafe and Bar is a decent lunch stop whether or not you go in. I had one of their large open sandwiches, and the waitress made me an iced coffee that was not on the menu. The terrace is good for people-watching.

Visit the vorarlberg museum

The vorarlberg museum, practically next door to the KUB, is where you learn what this region is and how it got that way. The permanent collection covers the history and culture of Vorarlberg and the temporary exhibitions take single themes or artists.

It is also known for the panoramic window that frames Lake Constance, and for its facade. That facade carries 16,656 concrete blossoms, which are castings taken from the bases of 13 kinds of ordinary PET bottle, designed by the artist Manfred Alois Mayr. They cover roughly 1,300 m² (13,993 sq ft) of smooth concrete and stand up to 45 mm (1.8 in) proud of it. From a distance they read as gothic rosettes. Up close they are drinks bottles.

Have a drink at Die Welle

Café Die Welle, “The Wave”, named after its shape, sits at the start of the pier by the docks where the lake cruises leave. It is small, has a terrace in summer, and does a long list of ice cream coupes, which makes it the obvious stop before or after a boat.

If it is full, sit on the steps of the pier instead. They face the right way for the sunset and the locals know it.

Go on a boat trip on Lake Constance

Vorarlberg Lines runs scheduled sailings and round trips from Bregenz harbour, and the 2026 season runs from 3 April to 18 October. You can take a day trip along the lake to Lindau, Friedrichshafen, Meersburg, Mainau or Constance, or do what I did and take a one-hour round trip.

The boat was modern, with a spacious air-conditioned lower deck running almost the full length, a few outdoor seats at the back and standing space at the front. The upper deck had indoor and covered outdoor areas, both with seats and tables.

Get to the pier about 10 minutes before departure. When the weather is good, everybody wants an outdoor seat. I got one on the lower deck outside and had a clear view of everything we passed.

The round trip runs clockwise from Bregenz to Lindau and back, which means the seats on the left side facing forward are the ones nearest the shore for the whole trip. There are toilets on board and staff come round for drink and cake orders.

Walk the Bregenz Seepromenade

The Seepromenade runs along the water from the harbour and connects to the paths of the neighbouring towns. The Bregenz stretch itself is short, but you can keep walking as far as you like along the lake.

Have dinner at Buehnedrei

Buehnedrei is the restaurant of the Bregenz Festival and Congress Centre, with a modern interior and a terrace on the Platz der Wiener Symphoniker am Bodensee. It is open all year, not only during the festival, which is the useful part.

I ate there before seeing Rigoletto on the lake stage. The gnocchi were good; the warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream was the thing I still remember. The staff were friendly.

In summer, go to the Bregenzer Festspiele

The Bregenzer Festspiele stages opera on the largest floating stage in the world, out on Lake Constance, for about five weeks each summer. The 2026 festival ran from 22 July to 23 August 2026 with Verdi’s La traviata on the lake stage, so it is over for this year. La traviata returns for the 2027 season, which runs to 22 August 2027.

Performances on the lake stage start at 9.15 p.m. in July and 9 p.m. in August, timed to sunset, which is a large part of why it works. I saw Rigoletto one evening. I do not understand Italian and I know essentially nothing about opera, and the moving stage alone made it worth going.

Two practical things. Book accommodation well in advance if you want to stay in Bregenz during the festival, because the town sells out. And if you stay outside the city, as I did, your festival ticket gets you free public transport to the performance.

Things to do in Dornbirn

Dornbirn is the largest town in Vorarlberg and the one to come to for shopping and for the Karren mountain. It is 12 minutes by train from Bregenz.

Visit the weekly market

The market on Dornbirn’s Marktplatz runs every Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. It is small, but it is a good walk-through and a place to buy fruit if you are passing anyway.

Go shopping

Dornbirn has more of the larger stores than Bregenz does, which surprised me. Combine it with the market and you have a morning.

Shops close earlier on Saturdays and are shut on Sundays, which is true across Austria. Plan accordingly, because a Sunday in Dornbirn is a quiet day.

Have lunch with a view on the Karren

Take the Karrenseilbahn cable car from the centre up the Karren mountain and eat at the Panoramarestaurant Karren before you walk. The restaurant is family-run by the Nöckl family with a team behind them, which it needs: it seats 225 indoors across three areas and 200 more outside.

With its panorama windows and white umbrellas it looks nothing like a mountain hut, but the menu is mostly traditional dishes such as bread dumplings with mushrooms, made with local ingredients. I had a salad with turkey and an apfelstrudel, and both the food and the service were good.

There is a viewing platform that juts out over the mountain edge, with a camera installed that will take your photo and send it to you. It is a bit cheesy and it makes a good memory.

Go for a hike from the top of the Karren

Several hikes start at the top of the Karren, and the easiest one to combine with lunch is the Karrenrunde. I had wanted to do the longer route down to the centre through the Staufensee and the Rappenlochschlucht gorge, but the heat and the clock sent me round the short loop instead.

The Karrenrunde is a 3.3 km (2.1 mi) circuit through woodland on an easy trail, graded moderate, which I would put down to the occasionally steep ascents and descents rather than anything technical. It ends where it starts, at the cable car station, so you can ride back down.

A 10-minute detour off the loop takes you to a mountain hut doing homemade snacks and cakes, with good views and, if you are lucky, the farmer’s pigs.

Check the Rappenlochschlucht is open before you plan the long route. The gorge has been closed for long stretches after rockfalls and the access road has been rebuilt, so it is not a walk to assume.

Have dinner at Pizzeria Isola Capri

I was too tired to go looking on my evening alone in Dornbirn, so I ate at the Italian restaurant next door to my hotel, Pizzeria Isola Capri. It was clearly a locals’ place: the waiter was lovely to everybody, and some people shook his hand warmly as they walked into the garden where everyone sat on that warm night.

My Pizza Vegetariana was not the finest pizza I have had, and the location next door and the waiter’s friendliness made up for it. The plates of pasta and meat going out to other tables looked and smelled better than mine.

Where to stay in Dornbirn

I stayed at the Hotel Katharinenhof COMFORT, a four-star house a few minutes’ walk from both the train station and the market square. It opened in 2017 and still feels new.

Breakfast is an extensive daily buffet, served in the garden when the weather allows. WiFi is free throughout and every guest gets a bottle of sparkling water. The rooms have a desk, a flat-screen television and a genuinely comfortable bed, and there is a lounge with a bar and underground parking. You can check prices and availability for the Katharinenhof here.

Things to do in Feldkirch

Feldkirch is the medieval one, and it is small enough that you do not need long. I arrived in the evening for the Poolbar Festival and left before lunch the next day, and that was enough to see the centre.

Walk around the medieval centre

Feldkirch’s medieval centre takes about two hours to walk slowly without going inside anything. The arcaded streets and the old towers are the reason to come.

The main sights are the Schattenburg castle, now a museum with a large arms chamber, the cathedral of St Nicholas, and the Katzenturm, the Cat’s Tower. Nobody is certain where the Cat’s Tower got its name; one theory is that cats’ heads were once used as practice cannonballs.

Go to the Poolbar Festival

The Poolbar Festival takes over the Altes Hallenbad, Feldkirch’s old indoor swimming pool, and the neighbouring Reichenfeld meadow for six weeks each summer. The 2026 edition ran from 8 July to 16 August 2026 and is finished; the 2027 festival runs from 7 July to 15 August 2027.

The format is a free outdoor area where you meet people and drink, plus a paid concert area inside what used to be the pool. The programme runs from niche to pop, with art installations alongside it, and there is free entry to selected events.

The night I was there, Os & The Sexual Chocolate and Keb’ Mo’ were playing. It was all funk, groove and soul.

Where to stay in Feldkirch

I stayed one night at what is now the Best Western Premier Central Hotel Leonhard, a modern hotel on Leonhardsplatz at the edge of the old town, less than a 15-minute walk from the station. It traded as the Best Western Plus when I visited and has since moved up to Premier.

All rooms are air-conditioned with a large flat-screen television, a desk and a spacious bathroom. WiFi is free throughout and guests can use the bar, restaurant and indoor pool. Breakfast is served every morning in the restaurant overlooking Mühletorplatz. You can check prices and availability for the Central Hotel Leonhard here.

How to get to Bregenz, Feldkirch and Dornbirn

Fly into Zurich and take the train, which is the shortest route from outside Europe. There is no direct train from Zurich Airport to Bregenz: you change either at St. Margrethen, or at St. Gallen and then St. Margrethen.

From Bregenz station, Dornbirn and Feldkirch are both short direct train rides, which is what makes doing all three in three days realistic. Trains run at least twice an hour on that line for most of the day.

To look up routes across Europe and buy tickets for connecting trains, Omio is a good place to start. For flights, I search on Trip.com, which lets you set fare alerts for a destination and shows which month is cheapest.

Is a Vorarlberg travel card worth it?

A regional card is worth it if you plan to use the trains and one paid attraction on the same day. The Bodensee-Vorarlberg region has replaced its old Freizeitkarte with the vor.you Experience Card, which gives you a free return cable car ride per day at the Pfänder, among other inclusions, and there is a vor.you Summer Card valid through the Vorarlberg summer holidays, which in 2026 ran from 11 July to 13 September.

Austria’s nationwide V-Card also gets you free admission at the Pfänder between 1 May and 31 October.

Prices and inclusions for these cards sit behind a booking system rather than a published table, so ask at the tourist office in Bregenz or Dornbirn on arrival, and work out how many of your days actually involve a lift plus a train. If you are doing the Pfänder once and walking everywhere else, a card will not pay for itself.

Don’t forget travel insurance

Travel insurance covers you when something goes wrong that you cannot control, and on a trip built around hiking and cable cars that is worth having. You twist an ankle on the Karrenrunde, your luggage does not reach Vorarlberg, or you drop the camera.

I have had ongoing travel insurance since I started travelling, but if you go away a few times a year you can insure each trip separately. Don’t have travel insurance yet? Check out SafetyWing. Their plans are flexible enough that you can sign up while you are already on the road, and when I had a claim their support team dealt with it without a fuss.

Bregenz, Dornbirn and Feldkirch FAQ

How many days do you need for all three towns? Three days is enough, one per town, because they are 12 to 25 minutes apart by train. Two days works if you skip the Karren hike and the lake boat.

Which town should I base myself in? Base yourself in Bregenz if you want the lake and the festival, and in Dornbirn if you want the cheaper rooms and the shops. Dornbirn is the largest town and the better-connected one; Bregenz is the prettier one.

Is Bregenz worth visiting outside the festival? Yes. The Pfänder cable car, the two museums, the Upper Town and the lake boats all run without the festival, and the town is far quieter and cheaper in June or September than in late July.

Can I visit Germany and Switzerland from here? Yes, easily. Lindau in Germany is a short boat or train ride, and the Swiss border at St. Margrethen and Buchs is minutes away by train, so a day in three countries is realistic.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The five tips below come from three days in these towns and from checking the 2026 opening times.

1. Sit on the left side of the lake boat, facing forward. The Bregenz round trip runs clockwise to Lindau and back, so that side is closest to the shore for the entire hour. Be at the pier 10 minutes early or you will be inside.
2. The view is from the cable car station roof, not the Pfänder summit. The summit itself has a cross and trees in the way. The station’s outdoor staircase leads to a platform with the real view, and it is not wheelchair accessible.
3. Check the KUB’s exhibition calendar, not just its opening hours. It closes between exhibitions while the next one is installed, and the opening hours page will still say Tuesday to Sunday.
4. Do not plan a Wednesday around St Martin’s Tower. It is the one day of the week it is shut, and it is a five-minute detour from a walk you will already be doing.
5. Both summer festivals are finished for 2026. The Bregenzer Festspiele ran 22 July to 23 August and Poolbar ran 8 July to 16 August. If a festival is the reason for the trip, the 2027 dates are 22 July to 22 August and 7 July to 15 August.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the first-hand notes in this post come from her three days in the Bodensee-Vorarlberg region, where she rode the Pfänder and Karren cable cars, took the Lake Constance round trip and saw Rigoletto on the Bregenz lake stage. The team covers Austria for independent travellers, including the hotels, trains, flights and travel insurance worth booking for a Vorarlberg trip, and updates this page when opening hours, fares and festival dates change.